Bought media encompassed political advertising while earned media
encompassed "news and commentary about his campaign on
television, in newspapers and magazines, and on social media,"
The Upshot wrote. The site used a media-tracking firm to estimate
the value of Trump's "earned" coverage.

Earned media typically dwarfs bought media for presidential
candidates — but nowhere near the level of Trump. With almost $2
billion of value estimated in earned media, Trump's total is more
than double that of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner
who had the second highest on The Upshot's list. Trump has
received more than six times the estimated earned media value of
the No. 2 Republican candidate on the list, Sen. Ted Cruz of
Texas.

And Trump has spent a fraction of the money his fellow combatants
have paid for advertisements. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush spent
more than eight times as much money on advertising as Trump — and
he's been out of the race for nearly a month. Cruz, Sen. Marco
Rubio of Florida, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all spent more
money than Trump on ads. Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who
dropped out of the race in early February and has since endorsed
Trump, has spent nearly twice what the GOP frontrunner has to
date on bought media.

While much of the attention Trump has received has been far from
positive, but, as Trump wrote in "The
Art of the Deal," he's a strong believer that "good publicity
is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad
publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all.
Controversy, in short, sells."